MVV Maastricht v Almere City

There are two matches in the Eerste Divisie this Sunday and both look interesting ones. Almere City looked dead and buried a few weeks ago. After sacking manager Gertjan Verbeek things have barely improved under his replacement Alex Pastoor and the season seems to be fizzling out. But this league is split up into four phases and the winner of each one will grab a promotion/relegation play-off spot, no matter how bad you are for the rest of the season and that is exactly what Almere City will be looking for at this stage to resurrect an otherwise woeful campaign.

After three games, they are top of the fourth phase with nine points and though there are still seven games to be played, it is their only chance to get something out of this season. With MVV, they are facing one of the weakest teams this season, but MVV comes on a high after beating De Graafschap away from home last game. In that game, they were under pressure for most of the game, but four shots on target ended in three goals and a victory.

Toshio Lake was the best player in that game. The striker, originally from the Feyenoord academy, but now on loan from Fortuna Sittard, was a continuous threat for MVV, and since he joined he has already been directly involved in five goals in six matches. In Limburg, Almere City are considered the favourites after their good run, but I think that run is not telling the whole story. It was against other teams from the bottom five, and two out of three were played at home, so I suspect that MVV will put up a fierce battle in the far South and at least come out with a point in this game.

FC Emmen v Telstar

After a great run in the last few months, FC Emmen are heading straight for the title. Their lead over FC Volendam, also on a direct promotion spot is three points, but with seven games to go, they hold an eight-point lead over Excelsior, the first rival outside the direct promotion spots, and given their recent form, there is no reason to believe that Emmen will give this away.

With Telstar, they are facing a team that hasn't done well at all recently and seem to finish the season in grim style. Telstar won one game from the last eight and that is exactly five less than their opponents. Especially at home, Emmen are almost unbeatable winning ten from the last eleven games. Interestingly, their only home defeat in that run came against Helmond Sport, who are bottom of the league. So, complacency is probably the only thing to worry about in Emmen, because other than that, they have been much stronger than anyone else recently in the Eerste Divisie.

Emmen's biggest weapon is their organised defence in which they barely give chances away, let alone goals. The six goals conceded in 2022 are a testimony of that. With Reda Kharchouch, they have one of the best strikers in the league, but it is midfielder Rui-Jorge Monteiro Mendes who is especially impressive, with four goals in the last four games. Telstar still have something to play for, but I suspect Emmen will be a couple of steps ahead of them in this one and continue their haul for direct promotion without any problems.